We consider a birth and death process with Q-matrix of rates qm,m + 1 = mβ, qm,m − 1 = mδ, qm,m = – m(β + δ) and qm,n = 0 otherwise. We assume that 0 < δ < β and β – δ = 1. The asymptotic behavior of first-arrival time at state n given that the process is at state m at time zero is expressed in terms of polynomials and it is shown that if m < n and m is large that the first-arrival time is close to log n/m with high probability.